Sacramento River Predator Diet Analysis: A Comparative Study

This study examined diets of two predatory fish species, the native Sacramento Pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus grandis) and the introduced Striped Bass (Morone saxatilis), in the Sacramento River, California, USA. Both species have been implicated in native species declines through predation, eliciting our investigation of their diets in the Sacramento River. Sampling occurred between March and November 2017, and was conducted via hook and line on a 35-km reach near Chico, California. Habitat types sampled include engineered structures (water diversions and beam bridges), rip-rapped channel edges, and natural riverbank. Stomach contents were collected via gastric lavage and later processed using visual, gravimetric, and genetic techniques. Diets of Sacramento Pikeminnow and Striped Bass were highly similar as determined through index of relative importance and PERMANOVA modeling. Water temperature was the only variable that significantly affected diet composition. Results reflect similar dietary niches for both species in the Sacramento River

Histotripsy Homogenization of the Prostate: Thresholds for Cavitation Damage of Periprostatic Structures

Background and Purpose: Histotripsy is a noninvasive, pulsed ultrasound technology that produces mechanically homogenized tissue within targeted volumes. Previous work has demonstrated prostatic tissue debulking in a canine model. The aim was to establish safety thresholds by evaluating histologic changes of urinary sphincter, neurovascular bundle (NVB), and rectum after targeted histotripsy treatment of these critical structures. Materials and Methods: Rectum, urinary sphincter, and NVB in five anesthetized canines were targeted for histotripsy treatment (50 total points). Locations received 1k, 10k, or 100k acoustic pulses (4 microsecond, 1-MHz) at a repetition frequency of 500-Hz. Canine subjects were euthanized immediately (2), survived 3 days (1), or 2 weeks (3) after treatment. Prostates, periprostatic tissue, and rectum were harvested and processed for histology. Results: The sphincter was structurally intact with minimal muscle fiber disruption even after 100k pulses (n=10). Undamaged nerves, arteries, and veins of the NVB were seen despite mechanical homogenization of surrounding loose connective tissue (n=19). The rectum, however, exhibited dose-dependent damage (n=20). 1k pulses yielded mild submucosal hemorrhage. 10k pulses resulted in moderate collagen disruption and focal mucosal homogenization. 100k pulses produced damage to the mucosa and muscularis propria with extensive hemorrhage and collagen disruption. One canine treated with 100k pulses needed early euthanasia (day 3) because of complications from a urine leak. Conclusions: Histotripsy histologic tissue effect varied based on targeted structure with substantial structural preservation of NVB and sphincter. Rectal subclinical damage was apparent after 1k pulses and increased in extent and severity with escalating doses. Future work will include assessment of functional outcomes and refinement of these initial safety thresholds.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90446/1/end-2E2010-2E0648.pd

Light adaptation mechanisms in the eye of the fiddler crab <i>Afruca tangeri</i>

A great diversity of adaptations is found among animals with compound eyes and even closely related taxa can show variation in their light‐adaptation strategies. A prime example of a visual system evolved to function in specific light environments is the fiddler crab, used widely as a model to research aspects of crustacean vision and neural pathways. However, questions remain regarding how their eyes respond to the changes in brightness spanning many orders of magnitude, associated with their habitat and ecology. The fiddler crab Afruca tangeri forages at low tide on tropical and semi‐tropical mudflats, under bright sunlight and on moonless nights, suggesting that their eyes undergo effective light adaptation. Using synchrotron X‐ray tomography, light and transmission electron microscopy and in vivo ophthalmoscopy, we describe the ultrastructural changes in the eye between day and night. Dark adaptation at dusk triggered extensive widening of the rhabdoms and crystalline cone tips. This doubled the ommatidial acceptance angles and increased microvillar surface area for light capture in the rhabdom, theoretically boosting optical sensitivity 7.4 times. During daytime, only partial dark‐adaptation was achieved and rhabdoms remained narrow, indicating strong circadian control on the process. Bright light did not evoke changes in screening pigment distributions, suggesting a structural inability to adapt rapidly to the light level fluctuations frequently experienced when entering their burrow to escape predators. This should enable fiddler crabs to shelter for several minutes without undergoing significant dark‐adaptation, their vision remaining effectively adapted for predator detection when surfacing again in bright light

A high-throughput computational framework for identifying significant copy number aberrations from array comparative genomic hybridisation data.

Reliable identification of copy number aberrations (CNA) from comparative genomic hybridization data would be improved by the availability of a generalised method for processing large datasets. To this end, we developed swatCGH, a data analysis framework and region detection heuristic for computational grids. swatCGH analyses sequentially displaced (sliding) windows of neighbouring probes and applies adaptive thresholds of varying stringency to identify the 10% of each chromosome that contains the most frequently occurring CNAs. We used the method to analyse a published dataset, comparing data preprocessed using four different DNA segmentation algorithms, and two methods for prioritising the detected CNAs. The consolidated list of the most commonly detected aberrations confirmed the value of swatCGH as a simplified high-throughput method for identifying biologically significant CNA regions of interest

Ethical considerations and publishing in human bioarcheology

INTRODUCTION: As bioarcheologists and forensic anthropologists, we are writing to highlight the apparent lack of ethical consideration, or mention of ethics, in published papers, especially when publishing on archeological human remains. In many situations, data deriving from excavated human remains provide the deep time perspective relevant to populations today (e.g., Binder et al., 2014). However, bearing in mind current ethical debates around the excavation, analysis, and curation of human remains (e.g., Squires, Errickson, & Márquez-Grant, 2019), and any in the future, we do need to address the ethics surrounding our research and its publication as we go forward

Enhanced thermal conductance of polymer composites through embedding aligned carbon nanofibers

The focus of this work is to find a more efficient method of enhancing the thermal conduc-tance of polymer thin films. This work compares polymer thin films embedded with randomly oriented carbon nanotubes to those with vertically aligned carbon nanofibers. Thin films embedded with carbon nanofibers demonstrated a similar thermal conductance between 40–60 µm and a higher thermal con-ductance between 25–40 µm than films embedded with carbon nanotubes with similar volume fractions even though carbon nanotubes have a higher thermal conductivity than carbon nanofibers

The role of CDC48 in the retro-translocation of non-ubiquitinated toxin substrates in plant cells

When the catalytic A subunits of the castor bean toxins ricin and Ricinus communis agglutinin (denoted as RTA and RCA A, respectively) are delivered into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of tobacco protoplasts, they become substrates for ER-associated protein degradation (ERAD). As such, these orphan polypeptides are retro-translocated to the cytosol, where a significant proportion of each protein is degraded by proteasomes. Here we begin to characterise the ERAD pathway in plant cells, showing that retro-translocation of these lysine-deficient glycoproteins requires the ATPase activity of cytosolic CDC48. Lysine polyubiquitination is not obligatory for this step. We also show that while RCA A is found in a mannose-untrimmed form prior to its retro-translocation, a significant proportion of newly synthesised RTA cycles via the Golgi and becomes modified by downstream glycosylation enzymes. Despite these differences, both proteins are similarly retro-translocated